Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Muffins

It's moving week! Which means I won't be doing much in the kitchen besides packing it up. We will have lots of family and friends around this weekend helping us (thank you thank you thank you!) so I figured we better at least have a few snacks around. After making these muffins, I'm not sure whether they'll actually make it to Friday/Saturday or not. Maybe I'll have to leave out the stuff to make them again...

While not completely "healthy", they do have some healthy spins on them, and you could make them even more so. They are dense and really moist. You could also add nuts to them if you want. Plus, as the authors note, they keep well for several days, which is a great factor! I found them on the King Arthur Flour website, which is filled with lots of other great recipes. I changed around the flour/sugar ingredients a little--noted below.

Apple Muffins

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour (**I used 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup AP flour)

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/4 t salt (I cut this back about half)

1 T cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used Smart Balance 50/50 in this place)

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup Splenda)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed (I would try half brown sugar Splenda/half reg. brown sugar)

1 large egg, lightly beaten (could use egg substitute or 1/4 cup mashed banana)

1 cup buttermilk or plain nonfat yogurt (if you don't have buttermilk, put 1 T vinegar in a one cup measuring cup then fill with milk and let sit for 5-10 minutes)

2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 450. Spray 12 muffin cups (except I got 19 muffins....so be ready for more!) and set aside.

Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the buttermilk gently (If you over-mix, the buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle). Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.

Divide the batter evenly amond the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down, and bake for an additional 5 minutes (they said 15-20...they must be using mega muffin tins), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.